Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Wild vs cultivated halophytes: Nutritional and functional differences

2020; Elsevier BV; Volume: 333; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.foodchem.2020.127536

1873-7072

Viana Castañeda-Loaiza, Marta Oliveira, Tamára Santos, Lisa Schüler, Alexandre R. Lima, Florinda Gama, Miguel Salazar, Nuno R. Neng, J.M.F. Nogueira, João Varela, Luísa Barreira,

Microbial Metabolites in Food Biotechnology

Some halophyte plants are currently used in gourmet cuisine due to their unique organoleptic properties. Moreover, they exhibit excellent nutritional and functional properties, being rich in polyphenolics and vitamins. These compounds are associated to strong antioxidant activity and enhanced health benefits. This work compared the nutritional properties and antioxidant potential of three species (Mesembryanthemum nodiflorum, Suaeda maritima and Sarcocornia fruticosa) collected in saltmarshes from Portugal and Spain with those of cultivated plants. The latter were generally more succulent and had higher contents of minerals than plants obtained from the wild and contained less fibre. All species assayed are a good source of proteins, fibres and minerals. Additionally, they are good sources of carotenoids and vitamins A, C and B6 and showed good antioxidant potential particularly S. maritima. Chromatographic analysis of the phenolic profile revealed that ferulic and caffeic acids as the most relevant phenolic compounds detected in the halophytes tested.